Battleborn Winter Update Patch Notes Part 1

The Winter Update releases Thursday, January 19 at 2pm PT/5pm ET for all regions.

General:

• Command Rank maximum has been increased to 150, with additional rewards for each rank after rank 100.
  • Core Packs awarded for most Command Ranks
  • Legendary Packs awarded every 10 Command Ranks
  • New Titles awarded every 10 Command Ranks
  • "Battleborn" achievement still awarded at rank 100

• Character Rank maximum for all characters has been increased to 20, with additional rewards for ranks 16-20.
  • Earn a Faction Pack for the associated character faction for each for ranks 16-20.
  • Earn new Character-specific titles at rank 17 and rank 20.
  • Character Mastery rewards are still granted at rank 15.
  • "First Among Heroes" achievement still awarded at rank 15.

• Added support for the PlayStation 4 Pro
  • PlayStation 4 Pro now has the following video options
    • 1080p @ 30fps
    • 1080p @ 60fps
    • Native 4K @ 30fps

• PlayStation 4 OG and Xbox 1 can select between 1080p @ 30fps and 1080p @ up to 60fps
  • Xbox 1 splitscreen is hard-capped through code to 1080p @ 30fps for performance reasons

• All consoles have the ability to now toggle between Minimum and Normal for Particle Detail in the video options

Performance:

• Numerous performance improvements to maps and FX content
• Improved Command UI performance
• Bandwidth improvements to reduce amount of data needed when replicating shield, health, experience, and stat data
• Fixed a bug with map driven player alerts allowing them to be re-implemented using much less bandwidth
• Optimized client and server processing of player profile data
• Optimized purchase item functionality in Command UI
• Optimized friends list functionality on the frontend

Main Quests & Daily Quests:
While battling to save the Universe is a reward in itself, we've always wanted a way to reward coming back and playing daily in Battleborn. We've heard that request a number of times from players as well, so here it is! Quests!

Main Quests are one-time-completion tasks that help train new players, while offering huge bonus Credit rewards. Daily Quests are forever! Come back every day and complete new daily quests for additional rewards.

• Players now receive a Main Quest chain and additional Daily Quests that can be completed for rewards
  • When first logging in, you will receive a Main Quest. Subsequent Quests become available when the previous one has been completed
  • After completing one match, and then after once per day, you will receive a Daily Quest. No more than 3 Daily Quests can be active at a time, so make sure to complete your Daily Quests promptly!

Improved Character Select:
Since before launch, we've wanted to integrate Draft selection mode into competitive play. To do that, we needed to overhaul Character Select to handle different types of character selection depending on which mode you're about to play. With the Winter Update, character select is completely reskinned and cleaned up, and is now more versatile than ever!

• Players may now choose from up to 5 different character select styles in Versus game modes
  • Captains Draft 5v5
  • Ban Pick 5v5
  • Quick Select
  • Chaos Rumble
  • Classic

• Character select is now broken into multiple phases, which depend on the character select style
• Players can now reselect their characters during the selection phase by navigating to the character list and backing out of their selection

Training:
One of the most consistent requests we've received from players was for help understanding the unique game modes of Battleborn. We've tackled that in a few distinct ways. The new Versus Training mode uses Nova to walk you through many of the basics of competitive gameplay, including Helixes, bases, buildables, minions, sentries, and one of the most overlooked features - teleporting back to base!

We also heard that players wanted a way to try out characters outside of a match. So, we've created the Dojo! Jump in, starting at level 5 with 100,000 Shards, and practice your skills on waves of minions. Level up quickly and play with combinations of abilities. Tap Nova when you're ready to leave and reset the Dojo.

• Added a Versus tutorial, featuring concepts from the Incursion game mode
  • Players will initially be able to access a single-player Incursion tutorial to learn the basics of the game mode
  • After completing the tutorial, players will be able to access a training experience that matches 3 players against 3 bots

• Added a single-player Dojo training map

Characters:
General

• The base 25 characters are now unlocked after completing the Prologue.
• Previous character unlock challenges now reward a special skin for that character instead of unlocking the character. The initial 7 characters receive the skin unlocks after completing the Prologue.

Ambra

• Added a team color outline to Sunspots
• Added team color FX to the Extinction Event diamond

Caldarius
The character team wanted to increase viability of close range attacks with Caldarius and focused on improving augmentations to the melee attack. In addition, we modified some of the power growth of Flashbang without reducing any of the core functionality.

• Moved the Level 5 Mutation Energy Transfusion from the level 5 Helix tier to the level 3 Helix tier
• Increased the life steal of Level 3 Mutation Energy Transfusion from 15% to 20%
• Swapped the Helix locations of Level 6 Mutation Gravitic Anomaly with Level 1 Left Helix Augment Energy Cascade
• Reduced the duration of Level 1 Left Helix Augment Gravitic Anomaly from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
• Increased the slow strength of Level 1 Left Helix Augment Gravitic Anomaly
• The Level 4 Right Helix Augment FlashMIRV now spawns six child grenades that explode mid-air
• Changed the functionality of Level 6 Mutation Energy Cascade
  • Activating Gravitic Burst increases Caldarius' TMP fire rate. +10% Attack Speed for 5 Seconds

• Swapped the Helix locations of Level 9 Mutation Range Finder with Level 4 Mutation Cluster Burst
• Decreased the area of effect reduction of Level 9 Mutation Cluster Burst from 66% to 25%
• Decreased the damage increase of Level 9 Mutation Cluster Burst from 75% to 10%
• In addition to increasing his Gravitic Manipulator jump height, Level 5 Left Helix Augment Gravitic Ascent now also decreases Caldarius' fall speed
• The Level 10 Mutation Ground Zeroed now uses the knockback crowd control instead of a physics push back

Kid Ultra

• Aura of Justice now affects Kid Ultra in addition to his allies
• Increased the base healing radius of To The Rescue by 20%
• The healing radius of To The Rescue now slowly diminishes when Kid Ultra slows down or stops
• The Level 9 Right Helix Augment Tranq Shot now only stuns a single target, regardless of how many are damaged by Bola Snare

Marquis

• Reduced the reveal radius of Level 2 Mutation Eyes Everywhere

Miko

• Increased the health of the Fungus Among Us mushroom by 50% (from 428 to 650 at level 5)

Montana
We updated Montana's weapon with some quality of life adjustments. We want to allow Montana players to have an easier time hitting thinner characters so we increased accuracy bonuses. In addition, we wanted to give Montana players more options when managing minigun heat.

• Increased heat reduction while Hailstorm is active
• Swapped the Helix locations of Level 9 Mutation Icy Resolve with Level 4 Left Helix Augment The Cooler
• Increased the accuracy bonus of Level 1 Right Helix Augment Weather Man from 30% to 50%
• Changed the functionality of Level 3 Right Helix Augment Gatling Grease augment
  • At max heat, the cooldown rate of Montana's Lumberjack Dash is greatly increased for a short period of time. +50% Cooldown Rate Over 3 Seconds

• Decreased the damage reduction of Level 4 Left Helix Augment Icy Resolve from 25% to 20%
• Changed the functionality of Level 9 Mutation The Cooler
  • Increases all healing Montana receives. +10% Healing Received

• Added a unique audio effect to Instant Payback

Orendi
Orendi also got some quality of life adjustments and increased utility in the Nullify skill. We wanted to give players more ways to execute pillar combos and to encourage alternatives to skill damage augmentations.

• Increased the travel speed of Chaos Bolts
• Reduced the total damage of Level 1 Left Helix Augment Fire Walk with Me from 410 to 210 at level 1
• Replaced Level 3 Left Helix Augment Let's Bounce with Cadence
  • Increases Orendi's attack speed. +10% Attack Speed

• Moved the Level 4 Mutation Instant Gratification from the level 4 Helix tier to the level 6 Helix tier
• Reduced the damage penalty of Level 6 Mutation Instant Gratification from 50% to 35%
• Changed the functionality of Level 6 Left Helix Augment Nihilism
  • After activating Nullify, the next Shadowfire Pillar will have no cast time. This does not apply to Pillarstorm

• Replaced Level 8 Right Helix Augment I Hate Your Pretty Shields with Stay... Right... There!
  • For 2 seconds after activating Nullify, Orendi's basic attacks slow enemies

• Replaced Level 9 Mutation Chaotic Reach with Faster Faster Faster Faster
  • Each enemy hit with Shadowfire Pillar briefly increases Orendi's movement speed by 3%. Up to +12% Movement Speed for 7 Seconds

Reyna
•

• Allies can be targeted by Shield Booster while aiming slightly further away from them
  •
• Reduced the delay before Shield Booster can be used after being primed

Thorn
The character team wants to improve the archery fantasy of Thorn so focused on augmentations to promote firing more arrows. We also felt that Thorn lost a lot of damage with the recent Blight changes so we wanted to return some of it via augmentations.

• Increased the zoom of Thorn's secondary attack
• Swapped the Helix locations of Level 6 Left Helix Augment Brutal Blight with Level 1 Left Helix Augment Swampfoot
• Swapped the Helix locations of Level 2 Right Helix Augment Fell Wind with Level 8 Right Helix Augment Distant Blight
• Replaced Level 2 Mutation Blightbrawler with The Wait Is Over
  • The final tick of Blight deals greatly increased damage. 300% Damage on Final Tick

• In addition to propelling Thorn backwards, Level 3 Right Helix Augment Burst Propulsion now also increases quick melee damage once every 2 seconds
• Replaced Level 4 Mutation Focused Volley with Splinter
  • When Thorn's Volley arrows hit an enemy, they splinter toward up to 2 enemies, causing reduced damage. 25% Damage per Splinter Arrow

• Increased the damage of the Level 5 Right Helix Augment Hexsanguination by 50% (from 12/s to 18/s at level 5)
• Increased the shield penetration of the Level 7 Mutation Phasing Arrows from 25% to 75%
• Modified the way Level 9 Left Helix Augment Archer's Boon restores health. Thorn now regenerates 48 Health over a short period of time for each Volley arrow that damages an enemy.

Incursion:

• Added a Nova callout when the M7.Super Sentry is destroyed

Meltdown:
Meltdown has been a popular game mode, but we felt that it had some issues. It was a bit longer than we wanted it to be, it was hard to get a comeback, and the ending was somewhat anti-climactic.

So, we've updated Meltdown to a new version called Meltdown: Finale!

While you're still helping MINREC escort minions through recycling grinders to appease his mad-robot-godhood, you now require less score to advance the mode to its new Finale stage! During the Finale, gigantic Ultra Minions spawn and you only need to get one of those Ultra Minions through a recycling gate to win! While the leaders will still have advantages here, there's now more of a chance for a dramatic swing in the late game.

• Once either team reaches 300 score or 20 minutes have passed, the Meltdown Finale begins!
  • Ultra Minions begin spawning instead of normal minions for the remainder of the game. The first team to score a single Ultra Minion into the enemy's final grinder wins
  • The team with the greater score after the initial Meltdown phase receives advantages in the Finale based off of the size of their lead, such as stronger Ultra minions and an uncontested first wave of Ultra Minions
  • Ultra Minions become stronger in each successive wave

Capture:
Many players have appreciated Capture as a fast brawl-type mode in Battleborn. We felt, though, that Capture was failing to capture what is unique about Battleborn - the strategy of leveling, activating gear, and working with a team to hold points. So, we've re-worked the mode to give players a much faster start, and have re-worked experience awards in the mode to better reward the types of play that we feel make Capture interesting.

• Players now start at Level 3
• Players now start with 500 Shards
• Reduced the amount of time required to capture or neutralize a point from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
• Increased Experience bonuses for capturing, occupying, and neutralizing capture points
• Varelsi Scouts no longer drop Helix pickups when killed
• Varelsi Scouts now drop 150 Shards when killed
• Varelsi Scouts now provide the entire killing team with significant Experience
• Varelsi Scouts no longer gain brief invulnerability while turning
• Reduced the respawn time of small and medium Shard clusters from 30 seconds to 15 seconds

Face-Off:

• Improved the pathing of Varelsi enemies
• Players now receive a Nova callout when a team collects 500 masks
• Snowblind: Reduced the value of Shards near the southern Tier 3 Varelsi camp

Story Missions:

• Players can now acquire Diamond score medals in the 8 original Story missions. Acquiring a new Diamond rating awards a awards a Legendary Gear Pack, up to 4 per mission (Normal, Normal Hardcore, Advanced, and Advanced Hardcore).

The Algorithm

• Increased the damage Geoff takes from area of effect attacks
• The health of ISIC's head slowly drains for the duration of the second phase of the Magnus boss fight

The Experiment

• Reduced the aim assistance when targeting Antem

The Void's Edge

• Players can no longer become stuck in the Varelsi Void if Deande's Holotwin decoy is alive at the end of the Void phase
• Players can no longer become stuck in the Varelsi Void by activating a teleport skill during the Void phase transition
• The number of activation pads required to start the Conservator boss encounter no longer scales up with player count

Gear and Economy:
While loot has been fairly generous in Story Missions, we felt (and heard!) that Versus matches were less satisfying in the rewards players earned. So, we're changing several things in order to help Versus play be more equitable to story missions in terms of what you can earn.

We're more than doubling the average amount of credits you earn per hour. We're also consolidating loot packs for sale in the Marketplace into one new loot pack - the Core Pack. The Core Pack is much more expensive than our previous Common Pack, but it now guarantees at least one Rare piece of gear, and has a much better chance of giving higher rarity gear from its three additional slots. The Core Pack has been priced at 2,500 credits, which means you'll be buying these fairly regularly, after a few matches of play.

We like the excitement of opening packs, and wanted to focus that in, while reducing the complexity of trying to understand a marketplace full of packs with subtle differences.

• Dramatically increased the amount of credits earned per hour when playing Versus matches.
• Players can now purchase the Core Loot Pack, which has replaced the Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Faction Loot Packs in the Marketplace
  • Each pack contain 4 pieces of gear (one of which will be Rare or better), and also has a chance to drop a skin or taunt
  • Packs can be purchased for 2,500 Credits
  • Previously acquired Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Faction Loot Packs will not be modified by this change, and can still be earned through Story Missions, gaining Character Ranks, and completing Operations with 100 Ops points.

Legendary gear is exciting and powerful, but over the last few months, we've discovered a number of ways that gear can be combined with other skills or systems to be more powerful than intended. Sometimes, the best temporary solutions we could offer were to reduce stat numbers to make those gear items almost useless. Conversely, many pieces never lived up to their potential, and as a result did not warrant the activation cost of a Legendary item.

With the Winter Update, we've performed a full audit of our Legendary gear and have made a number of changes and enhancements to attempt to tune each Legendary item to be balanced and useful.

• Arcship Buoy: Reduced the cooldown time of the Legendary effect from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
• Blissbeast Skull Plate: Increased the Health Regeneration per Second given by the Legendary effect from a maximum of 14.00 to a maximum of 28.00
• Blissbeast Skull Plate: Reduced the trigger threshold of the Legendary effect from 25% to 15%
• "Bloody Mess" Burst Kit: Increased the Attack Damage of the Legendary effect from a maximum of +9.10% to a maximum of +13.65%
• Bola's Target Finder: Increased the damage amplification of the Legendary effect from a maximum of 5.60% to a maximum of 12.60%
• Borrowed Timer: Increased the health threshold of the Legendary effect from 10% to 25%
• Borrowed Timer: Increased the cooldown time of the Legendary effect from 30 seconds to 60 seconds
• The De-Turtler: The Legendary effect has been significantly modified, and now functions as follows:
  • "Critical hits wound enemies for up to 5.0 seconds (depending on item level) once every 15 seconds."

• The Double-Hug: The Legendary effect now reduces the cooldown time of Arc Mine by 75% instead of instantly resetting it
• Dr. Fist's Medic Bag: Increased the duration of Maximum Health stacks granted by the Legendary effect from 5 to 10 seconds
• Emergency Auto-Medic: Increased the Health Regeneration per Second of the Legendary effect from a maximum of +14.00 to a maximum of +21.00
• Finiscian Wrench: Increased the trigger chance of the Legendary effect from 6% to 25%
• Firmware Update 1.51C: Increased the Legendary effect trigger chance from a maximum of 7% to a maximum of 30%, and increased the cooldown reduction from 2 seconds to 4 seconds
• Getaway Grog: Multiple instances of the Legendary effect no longer stack
• Guardian Shieldbreaker: Increased the Bonus Damage to Shields of the Legendary effect from a maximum of 5.4% to a maximum of 9.1%
• Hate Reflector: Increased the health threshold of the Legendary effect from 25% to 30%
• Hate Reflector: Increased the trigger chance of the Legendary effect from 20% to a maximum of 35%
• H3NCHM4N's Capacitor: Changed the Maximum Shield Strength granted to buildables by the legendary effect from 20% to a maximum of +100
• Helm of the Imperium: Increased the duration of the Legendary effect from 5 seconds to 7 seconds
• Hemsworth Sparkleshield: Reduced the time required to generate a Legendary effect stack from 6 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Hidden Charger: Increased the Shield Recharge Delay granted by the Legendary effect from a maximum of 1.05s to a maximum of 4.05s
• Hostile_Takeover.exe: Increased the shield regeneration prevention Legendary effect from 8 seconds to 10 seconds
• Intermittent Angel: Increased the trigger chance of the Legendary effect from a maximum of 20% to a maximum of 40%
• Lorrian Skill Spike: Increased the trigger chance of the Legendary effect from a maximum of 7% to a maximum of 35%, and reduced the bonus damage of the Legendary effect from 50% to 30%
• Longarm Scope-Goat: Increased the cooldown time of the Legendary effect from 15 to 60 seconds
• Medical Nano-Colony: Increased the Health Regeneration per Second of the Legendary effect from a maximum of +7.00 to a maximum of +21.00
• Mini-Singularity Launcher: Increased the cooldown time of the Legendary effect from 10 to 30 seconds
• Mossire's Mukluks: The Legendary effect has been significantly modified, and now functions as follows:
  • "Gain Sprint Speed while healing an ally."

• Orbital Tracking Spike: The Legendary effect now scales up to a maximum of +8.40% Attack Speed inversely proportional to current movement speed instead of only providing the bonus while stationary
• Premium Health Plan: The Legendary effect now scales up to a maximum of +28.00 Shield Recharge per Second directly proportional to current health instead of only providing the bonus at maximum health
• Philotic Pylon: The Legendary effect has been significantly modified, and now functions as follows:
  • "LLC Only: Heal LLC allies' shields for a percentage of your Shield Recharge Rate while your shield is recharging."

• Poor "M-Pulse" Controller: The Legendary effect now explodes on all killing blows instead of only critical hit killing blows
• Keeper-Seeker Reaper Rounds: Increased the Legendary effect's damage per stack from a maximum of 1.2% to a maximum of 1.5%
• Shadoculars: The Legendary effect has been significantly modified, and now functions as follows:
  • "Dealing more than 50 skill damage to an enemy reveals them."

• Shield Web Interdictor: Increased the shield regeneration prevention Legendary effect from 8 seconds to 10 seconds
• The Stable Executioner: Increased the Legendary effect's trigger chance from a maximum of 7% to a maximum of 20%
• Sustainment Well: Increased the Health Regeneration per Second provided by the legendary effect from a maximum of +8.00 to a maximum of +16.00
• Vampiric Vestment: Increased the Maximum Health per Legendary effect stack from a maximum of +28 to a maximum of +56, and reduced the maximum number of stacks from 10 to 5.
• Vow of Zealous Fury: Removed the stacking component of the Legendary effect. Activating a skill now grants a maximum of +8.40% Attack Speed for 5 seconds
• Waveform Destabilizer: Increased the Shield Penetration per Legendary effect stack from a maximum of +4.20% to a maximum of +10.50%, and reduced the maximum number of stacks from 5 to 3.

New and Reworked Boosts:

• A new Boosts section has been added to the Marketplace for purchasing and managing Boosts
• Boosts no longer activate on purchase. You can choose to activate a boost through the Boosts screen in the Marketplace.
• Double XP Boost now provides stacking bonuses when multiple players in a group have them active at the same time.
• New Boosts:
  • Loot Booster - Grants gear pack rewards for completing matches and missions. Rewards are increased for Victories, and are greater when stacked with teammates' Loot Boosters.
  • VIP Pass - Unlocks all characters and customizations for your team and grants a credits bonus for victories that stacks with other VIP Pass holders

• Each boost unlocks a temporary animated title while the boost is active.

Interface:

• The Command Menu has received a visual makeover!
  • New layout for the Information page
  • Stats page has received a major update
    • The "Objective" statistic has been replaced by a game mode-specific statistic in each Versus mode
    • Added Character Statistics for Best Damage Dealt, Best Healing Given, and Best Damage Taken

• Added a new Gameplay option for Damage Number Styles
  • Show Combined Damage Numbers: Multiple instances of damage or healing will show a single combined number
  • Show Individual Damage Numbers: Multiple instances of damage or healing will show individual numbers for each instance

• The default team colors have been changed to blue for allies and orange for enemies
• Combined the "Extras" and "Options" menus.
• Added attention-grabbing animation to Sentry health HUD bar when being attacked

Broadcaster Mode:

• Added a first-person camera view (Go into the normal third-person follow-cam and then zoom in (mousewheel/LT-up) until the mode changes to first-person; go back to third-person again by zooming out.
• Set first-person spectating preferences in the Options Menu (first-person only, third-person only, prefer-current and prefer-third)
• Broadcasters now see skill targeting indicators in the third-person camera view
• Broadcasters now see teleport timers when in both first-person and third-person camera views
• When the killer of a spectated player taunts, the camera will automatically jump to spectate the taunting player.

Quality of Life:

• Reduced the duration of the Victory and Defeat screens
• Reduced the time required to initiate a vote to surrender if a player has abandoned the match
• Reduced the time until a player is kicked for idling from 7 minutes to 4.5 minutes

FX:

• Numerous FX adjustments have been made to reduce visual noise and improve performance
• Improved the buildable cooldown timer bar
• Added third person FX when a player respawns

Audio:

• Added music to the Victory and Defeat screens
• Re-activated additional Ultimate skill voice over lines for each character

Surrender System:

• Surrendering is now allowed earlier than normal to a team if they are outnumbered.

Challenges:

• Created career challenges for Face-Off games played and matches won.
• Challenges which previously unlocked characters now unlock special skins for those characters.

Scoreboard:

• All Versus scoreboards now show damage dealt, damage taken, and healing given along with kills, deaths, assists and one stat specific to each game mode
• Each team winning a particular column of stats is highlighted
• Versus mode tie-breaking no longer uses player score as this stat has been removed.
  • Instead, the first tie breaking step is to check which team won the most scoreboard stat categories.
  • If this is a tie, then the previous tie-breaking steps are used.

Winter Update patch notes continued in Part 2